Chris Reeve Green Beret?

I'm going to wait a while to post a response to these comments.

I will say most of what I read seems to come from arm chair commandos with no field experience!

Just a alot of opinions, no quals!
 
sams said:
I normally don't jump in to take sides but I have a bit of experience that may be "nice to know".

I own a Neil Roberts knife. It is in the garage, in my tool box. I suppose not the place for a "serialized" numbered collector. I use it fishing, boating, on the job , but haven't shot anything to "gut" with it yet.

When you use a knife, it has to be one with your hand. In the dark or underwater, both of which I do with my knives. The Neil Roberts with the 6" blade, comfortable grip, and well made sheath is a heck of a buy. I don't know steels, but this knife is sharp, holds an edge, and easy to touch up.

Two thumbs up for CRK knives and a thank you to Mr. Harsey for a nice design but even nicer tribute to a fallen brother SEAL.
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sams,
This is Bill Harsey, with permission from Gunnerjohn.
Thanks for your kind words. It is very humbling to have been asked to do the knife for Neil Roberts and people have no idea how much respect we have learned over the years for the men of our military special operations community.
You touched upon something that was one of the questions I asked and it has to do with being able to feel the knife in complete darkness, or at least without looking at it and knowing where the edge is. Hardheart is figuring it out too.
Yes there has been criticism from Mr. Stamp on the handle design of the Green Beret knife and we use the same applied micarta handle to tang concept on the Neil Roberts knife.
The rounded and exposed tang serves two purposes, first is to add radial grip strength to control the edge of the knife in a twisting cut. The other reason is to give the user a tactile reference to exactly where the edge is at all times. This becomes even more important when gloves are being worn while using the knife.
Remember my comments about the axes used in pro timber sports? The choppers, many of which are friends of mine, always shape the axe handles to not just fit the hand but they very carefully rasp a fine edge down the inside middle of the handle that is then aligned exactly with the edge of the axe when the head is "hung'. This is so by feel they know exactly where the edge is when they strike.

Speaking of axes, I find it curious that Mr. Stamp is willing to judge knives against his axe in chopping ability but has never published the results of how well his axe works in stone and cinder blocks. Why would you ask more from a knife that is not designed for heavy chopping than the axe that is?
 
I will say the majority here are "children". They have no field experience.

They don't know what a knife is. They never used one for "REAL". They just hold it and pretend.
 
sams said:
I will say the majority here are "children". They have no field experience.

They don't know what a knife is. They never used one for "REAL". They just hold it and pretend.
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Care to elaborate on who you are referring to? :confused:
 
sams, that's a little unfair. We have a large percentage of adults here, a lot of them even older than I am, and a very high percentage of military, police, fire, and medical personnel, active and retired.

Just look at the status of Chris Reeve knives among us and you'll see we know what we're talking about. :)

Don't judge the forum too harshly on the basis of a discussion that some people come to mostly for entertainment, however serious it is for the rest of us.
 
I think most of the posters are between 14 and 19 years old. They reply but they never "used" a knife. Most repeat what "others said". like authority.

Come back...........I'll add more.
 
Nothing wrong with youngsters getting involved in learning. You don't have to take any individual contributions too seriously. My own problems on this thread were with two supposed adults who didn't come here with open minds, ready to discuss the topic, but with agendas, looking to puff up their favored knife choices.

As annoying as that can be, we did at least end up with the very welcome contributions by Bill Harsey.
 
I read it differently. The subject was I think about CRK Green Beret. There were allot opinions. Mostly from people who thought the knife was over rated and lacking qualiity. I might have mis construed the comments, sorry.;)
 
There's probably some who feel it is overrated. I haven't myself seen it hyped up much, but there is also quite the divide on these forums about the Sebenza. And I'm sure there is some spillover, considering the connections to Chris Reeve. As for quality, I don't think anyone thinks it is a poorly made knife, but it doesn't meet the criteria for some. I think it looks to be a fine design, my only question was the use of S30V, just figuring that for the specs something else may have been better. But that's just my preference for carbon steel in such a knife, and the still lingering questions of S30V's performance and consistency.

Personally, when I see Cliff say a knife has poor chopping ability, I already know enough from reading his other reviews that his judgment of chopping is rather strict-he really does like larger knives and axes. So I don't think it says anything too terribly bad about this knife-it isn't a large camp knife or a GB. The handle comment, that's a personal preference, and I appreciate when Cliff or anyone else makes a comment on ergos-but that is something I always leave to my own judgment (unless it's a qc complaint with some legs under it) Cliff did compliment the tip strength, which is a plus cause we know he punishes them. The edge holding comments, I believe speaks more to the steel in general, and I believe that Cliff likes to have his blade steels run fairly hard, and he plays around with the edge geometry quite a bit.

I guess I'm just saying that when you really take a look at CS's reviews, you get a feel for where he's coming from, and don't take every negative as being a true failing, depending on what you yourself are looking for. I like his providing of numbers on most of his tests, and demonstrations of edge failures (which I don't think knocks any knife in particular, but combinations of steel, HT, and geometry, which must differ for intended uses) I don't necessarily look to Cliff to provide me with suggestions on purchases, but just for the exploration he does overall, which is darned interesting to me. If people genuinely base purchasing decisions on Cliff and Cliff alone, that probably isn't the best thing to do, and I don't think even he believes it to be so.
 
I absolutely agree with everything you just stated. Excellent post!:thumbup:

I think it is also great to see Mr. Harsey here, commenting on his design. It is indeed neat to see a former SEAL posting here, too.:thumbup:

Best wishes,
3Guardsmen
 
I couldn't agree more with Hardheart's last comment. It is nice to have a difference of opinnion as it puts forth some interesting info. that one might not have thought of otherwise. But remember that it is just one opinnion. I like taking in as much info. as I can but ultimately making up my own decision. While I cannot speak about the Green Beret knife because I do not have one, I do have a Chris Reeve model VI and a Project I that I would depend on any time, any place. Lets give all these guys the respect I think they deserve. If everyone had the same knife, the world would be a very boring place.:D
 
Just for the record, I make Canes/Staffs & Walking Sticks and when I head to the woods to cut down what I will use, my Large Green Beret has about the same odds as being on my side as my Gransfors mini hatchet.

Chopping ability has been A-OK.

Now to put it in perspective I am cutting approx 1 & 1/2 to 2 inch Diameter saplings (Hickory/Ash/Oak)for my projects, and in comparison, I would not be using my small Gransfors to do much more than that any way.

The first time I took it out I cut down six future staffs, chopping off both the base and the top of each sapling.

When I came back and checked out the blade, all it needed was a wipe off with a silicone cloth & about 4 strokes on each side with a ceramic rod and it was sharper than it was out of the box.

No chipping or marring of the blade was noticible prior to sharpening, and in retrospect, probably part of the reason it wasn't feeling as sharp as I like after I cut them down, was because there was resin from the saplings on the blade edge.

Be Well,
 
I carried the short GB on my last trip downrange - a quality tool, with ergos that work for me. I used it as a utility knife - cutting cardboard, cord, zipties and plastic banding material for the most part, and some light prying. I used the point to split soft wood a few times. Had I needed it, I had no reservations regarding it's performance as a combat knife.

Never had a problem with edge chipping, but I never used it to chop anything substantial. It took and held a keen edge, although I still prefer tool steel or INFI for fixed blades for cutting performance.

I find Harsey's designs outstanding - I have both GBs and the Roberts knife. I also appreciate his Tactical folder.

I admire and respect Reeve and Harsey for making their knives available, and I appreciate Bill Harsey's commenting in this forum.

While I wouldn't characterize the GB, or Neil Roberts, as necessarily superior to my 01 Randalls, INFI Busse's, or SR101 Swamp Rats, they are much easier to obtain for the soldier deploying to the field. The theoretically superior alternative is useless if you can't get one when you need it.

I understand this is a function of demand and production capacity, but the fact is the CRK knives are typically easily purchased from a number of outlets. I cannot say the same for some of the alternatives mentioned in this thread.

This may be irrelevant in the discussion of S30V vs. alternatives, but in defense of Harsey and Reeve, they make excellent tools available in large enough quantities to satisfy demand.
 
<The superior alternative is useless if you can't get one when you need it.>

That sums up all my problem with Busse's. I'm sure they are great knives but due to their unavailability they seem to mainly fall into the hands of "collectors". Not to say that there is nothing wrong with collectors but to 99% of those that would use them for their designed purpose- they are only a pipe dream.
 
muzzleup said:
Sams,
We children from MAC-V SOG, ops group 34 and my group which you would not have heard of or know what it was if you did hear it, would like to invite you to come and play with us and show us how we have never learned how to use a blade.
I suspect that you are one of the ones you refer to as sitting in their arm chairs and making up things.

Chris Reeve and Bill Harsey are indeed not couch potatoes and they know of what they speak.

Your negative accusations sound very childish to me mister and if you think you are blowing your own whistle to wake us children up then "think about it"!

FWIW, Ron
:thumbdn: :jerkit:
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(Bill Harsey here) Ron,
I'm speaking in my most careful and polite voice, I don't think sams was including you in the comment he made. I know what BUDS Class he graduated from and this forum isn't tough enough for you two highly experienced special operations men to get into it. I think this is a true misunderstanding and hope this works out OK. I have nothing against a good fight but not between men I respect.
While on the topic of Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Operation Group, would you know a friend of mine, Major John Plaster? I'll be seeing him in a couple days.
 
Matteo Escobar said:
Once again, and really not to start trouble, can you please provide one single link of INFI chipping?

I won't even insult you with the plethora of s30v chipping links.

As you said, it's about the STEEL, not about the company.

So, if it's about the steel, let's see the links.
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Here's one from recent memory:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3512933&postcount=20

You can find them if you look. With careful searching you can also find the pic where Rob Simonich chipped INFI and S30V.

Sure, you hear more about S30V chipping than INFI but you can't draw hard conclusions based on the greater frequency of these reports. INFI is used by a single company, all heat-treated the same way, on fixed blades only, with generally thicker edges and more obtuse edge angles. S30V is used by Benchmade, Buck, Spyderco, CRK, Camillus, Emerson, Strider, etc. not to mention plenty of custom makers. With the huge volume of S30V in use plus the variety of manufacturers, heat treatments, quality control standards, edge profiles, and knife types, I'm neither surprised nor insulted by the plethora of S30V chipping anecdotes.
 
Sams,
I just spoke to Bill Harsey and he explained to me that you indeed have been through the BUD/S training. So I hope you forgive what I had written in much too much of a haste. I felt that you were refering to those like me and Bill Harsey but he called me and said that indeed he did not feel you were addressing us.
Hope we can start off with a fresh and understanding attitude towards each other.

Regards, and Ciao
Ron Cassel (from No Such Agency)

:foot: :thumbup:
 
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